This presentation examines the evolving role of global health-related institutions (with particular attention to WHO) in responding to global health crises and how such crises have served as catalysts for institutional recalibration. It situates WHO within a dense polycentric ecosystem of overlapping regimes, analysing how expertise, authority, and normative instruments are reshaped.
It raises questions concerning how expert knowledge is constructed, mobilized, and contested in transformative times, engaging with regime complexity, the co-constitution of epistemic authority, the role of international institutions as sites of innovation, and the ways crisis narratives contribute to shifts in governance structures.
This research has been developed in the framework of Ana's academic engagement with the Hague Academy of International Law's Centre for Studies and Research in International Law and International Relations, under the direction of Professors Giulio Bartolini and Anne Lagerwall, focusing on "International Institutions in the Face of International Crises".
Speaker bio:
Ana Balcazar-Moreno is a PhD Researcher in International Law and Research Associate at the Centre for Digital Humanities and Multilateralism, the Global Governance Centre, and the Global Health Centre of the Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID). Ana is a participant of the Centre for Studies and Research of the Hague Academy of International Law and the panel of the Interest Group on International Organizations-ESIL Annual Conference 2026. Her research interests encompass the laws and practices of international institutions, regime complexity, global governance, global health, and stakeholder multiplicity. Ana’s experience combines academic knowledge, applied research, teaching, and training with an expanding practitioner portfolio. She has served as a Legal Officer and collaborated with various United Nations entities, the European Union, and other institutions.
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